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Hall Caine Creative Writing Competition 2014

On Friday afternoon, Daniel and Elsie from Class 4 attended the award ceremony at the Manx Museum to collect their Highly Commended prizes for the KS2 section of the competition. Well done to them.

Here are the two winning stories

Operation Hero by Daniel

It came from nowhere. Out of the
blue. When suddenly one man could do something amazing. He stepped forward when
everyone else hung back. This was the act of a hero.

Lewis peaked his head round the
corner feeling his stomach kick him again. Tapping him on his back,
Lewis’s mum persuaded him there was nothing to fear. The doctor was a tall grey
haired man who assured Lewis that he would soon be well and back at school again. Little did he know the dark truth that lay ahead.

Scans showed that Lewis was
suffering from a condition rarely seen in children. Both kidneys were
damaged and to complicate matters even more he had a rare blood group that
would make a match difficult, but the search would start immediately.

The press went mad the next day.
Like foxes stalking prey. Microphones and cameras stayed in the once peaceful
front garden of the unfortunate Quayle's house, waiting for a story to be told.
Lewis and his family had to talk, in hope that they might have peace.

Rare Disease Strikes Boy Help
Urgently Needed were the headlines that raged across the papers next day.

The sound of the doorbell rang out,
as Lewis’s mum stretched out of her seat, the seat she hadn’t left since she
woke up. At the door was a tall man,aged maybe 50 she thought. He
made eye contact with her, while smiling pleasantly. He started speaking in a
soft voice explaining that he respected what she was going through. He told her
about seeing the article in the paper about Lewis. He carried on to say how he
would like to help. The man who had now introduced himself as Robert
White from The Childrens Trust, explained that he hoped to able to give Lewis what he really needed, a new kidney. Robert was willing to help, as
he had gone through the pain of losing a son. The Trust helped bring together
families and donors. Robert had not been able to help his own son but he could
help Lewis.

As the day of the
operation approached, Lewis was petrified but excited at the thought of life
returning to normal. Nobody knew what lay ahead, but he was determined
everything would go to plan.The bright lights of the operating theatre shone in
his eyes as he drifted off into a deep sleep, thinking his hero that had given
him so much hope.

I Never Even Got To Ask His Name

by Elsie

If I ever get my hands on those
Germans, who spent ages yesterday, shooting down and sinking all them brave
men, in their little brave boats. Braver than us most of them. They
should be scared!

Let me introduce myself, my name is
Juan, I am a soldier in the British Army, from Sulby in the Isle of Man.

We the British Army, I am ashamed to
say, were retreating. We had no choice really. We were pushed too far, too far
for us to cope with. We weren't the only ones retreating, French citizens were
leaving their homes and following us.

We had walked for miles. Some
were killed, others died of starvation, but the conclusion was always going to
be the same, I was sure of it. Then I suppose if you were standing on a beach
with German 'Mad Hatters', (as my mate Orry called them) shooting at you,
you would feel their was nothing you could have done about it either.

We were like flies on a spiders web,
waiting to be eaten. There was no way to escape. We couldn't go back, mainly
because of the wall of German soldiers and we couldn't go forward. Well, it's not exactly easy to swim the English Channel. Anyway you get the point, we were stuck.Most of us thought we were dead, the
rest of us were dead. As days passed we picked our way through bleeding
bodies and human waste. I was sure of it now, I would never see my beloved May
again. I dreamt of her on the heavenly Manx beaches, but woke here on the
Normandy beaches of hell.

We all felt the same. Tears filled
my eyes and then we got the shock of our lives. We almost laughed our heads
off! As you would if you saw around 30 little fishing boats appear on the
horizon, when you were on a beach about to die. But they were there and they
kept coming, until all you could see of the water was boats. They came
right up on shore and the reason soon became clear.

Seven days later thousands of us had
been rescued. Every day them brave men, came back, despite the thunderstorm of
German bullets and bombs raining down on them.

It’s my turn now, my turn to go
home. I just hope the others get off too. My saviour has a little blue yacht,
which has been badly hit. He tells me he’s been bombed,
luckily on the shore and he’d managed to patch his boat up. He says he
will do one more trip, but then he is going home, the boat is falling apart.

I climb from his boat. I
turn to say thanks, he’s gone. The water fountain that came before
explained why.